Every culture (and subculture!) has rules about who is acceptable and who is not.
Every culture (and subculture!) has rules about who is acceptable and who is not. Often there are a couple of groups that most people dislike or don’t associate with, but just about everyone gets scorned by someone.
When you add religion to the mix it can be particularly toxic. Because now it’s God who is saying that people are not valuable, not worthy, not included. And when God doesn’t want you, that really hurts.
Jesus steps into these situations with gusto, always siding with the excluded. Take a moment and read this passage. Imagine the scene. What does it smell like? What noises do you hear? And where are you in the scene - are you just watching it unfold, or might you be a participant in some way?
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” - Matthew 9:9-13